世界上最好吃的食物
I am the kind of person that plans my meals in advance. After eating lunch, I sit back with a cup of tea and think about what I will have for dinner. I wake up in the morning salivating for breakfast. I had no idea what a culinary treat I was in for.
During my first two months in China, I was like a girl in love. Everything I saw and did amazed me. I have journal entries that are pages long describing, in great detail, everything I ate. From the sauce to the kind of chopsticks I used, nothing went unnoticed or unrecorded. Chinese people gape at me when they see me using chopsticks, just because I can. Chinese food was a Sunday night dinner tradition in my family.
Western eating is so different, not only in the use of cutlery, but also in the rules of eating, for which there are many. For example, everything is cut before it's eaten, except salad. Instead of eating around the bone, as we do here （I do it too, of course）, people cut around the bones, which makes eating fish an ordeal. Also, there is a certain way to eat soup, which involves pushing the spoon away from you, to make sure you don't get splashed, and never slurping or touching your teeth on the spoon. Before I came here, I thought table manners were very important. Now I tink that they are silly, worrying and concentrating on switching the fork and knife every time you cut your food takes away from the enjoyment of food.
Every time I eat at a restaurant, I try something new. I am not afraid of trying anything （many Americans are picky eaters, going so far as to be shocked when the head of the fish is left on） and I will eat anything once. At first I would try a bite and not like it. This happened with durian, fish heads, snake, anything spicy, and bitter melon, to name a few. Now I like all of these things. I remember the day when I found the scent of durian appealing: I walked into the building that houses the grocery store and was assaulted by the smell. My stomach rumbled in hunger.
My new favorite dish is spicy fish heads. There are vegetables whose names I don't know in English. I am proficient in Chinese food, and am also at least ten pounds heavier than when I first arrived. I never even like rice before I came here, and now I have it with every meal. I don't like cheese either, and Western food just doesn't taste as good as it once did. Even McDonald's is better here.
My mother would be upset hearing this, but Chinese food really is the best in the world, and no one can convince me otherwise.
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